Starting Seeds Indoors : How do you know when it’s safe to sow?

January 15, 2012

Brassica Seedlings

You’ve made your lists, drawn out your crop rotation plans, have your seeds and compost ready, and before long you’ll be itching to start sowing seeds.

The pressure builds as magazines and social media start to fill with stories of planting dates and there’s a noticeable jostle over who’s sowing seeds indoors when. Does that sound familiar? If you’re new to vegetable gardening beware, it soon will be and before you know it you’ll be sowing too and then wondering why your seedlings are seriously struggling or have died.

As such an avid social media user, last year I remember feeling a sense of panic that I’d left my sowing too late, yet it wasn’t even March! I know from experience that we can be three weeks behind the growing conditions of warmer gardens, but it was difficult not to feel left behind when being bombarded with everyone else’s reports.

Why is it important to sow seeds at the correct time (temperature)?

If you attempt to sow seeds below their preferred temperature, it can result in slow germination, seeds rotting, problems with plants developing and ultimately disease as they wont have started life with the best start.

Seeds need heat to germinate and the requirements vary from plant to plant. They will germinate quicker at higher temperatures but the minimums required can be roughly divided into three groups:

How do you know when is the best time to sow seeds?

Leggy seedlings sown too early

Part of being a successful gardener is learning to work with, understand and appreciate nature and her elements. That means noticing the wind directions and the signs of seasons changing, the fluctuations in temperature.

If you’re thinking of sowing seeds indoors that can be transplanted out as the temperatures rise, or plant seeds directly into the soil where they will germinate, you’ll need to have an idea of the soil temperature.

How do the guides work out the sowing dates?

We can roughly work out when the best sowing dates are using average temperatures from previous years. Having an idea of when the last frost date is in your area will help you to plan when to sow your seeds indoors, ready to be transplanted outside and hardened off once the soil temperature has warmed up.

Take runner beans for instance. You have two choices:

Sow the beans directly into the soil once the soil temperatures have reached 10-12°C for three days or more (between May and June, depending upon where you live). NOTE: this is the easiest method! So for us living here at 1,000 feet above sea level I would be aiming for early to mid June however, if you live in a warm, sheltered area, mid May should work for you.

Sow the beans in compost in modules ready to plant outside when soil temps are 10-12ºC or more.

Beans take between 7 – 14 days to germinate and you could allow approximately 3-4 weeks in the pots before transplanting outside.

As an example, if I’m looking at the calendar, aiming to plant my beans outside on 11th June, I would plan to plant them in pots during mid to end of April (keeping an eye out on long-range weather forecasts). This should also allow time to harden them off before planting i.e. acclimatising them to the outdoors gradually.

There’s no science here – most guides will suggest you sow runner beans between April and May. The above was just a demonstration of how they arrive at that.

Where do I find the frost dates for my area?

In Ireland the most helpful resource I’ve found for frost dates are the reports published by Met Éireann that give 30 year average temperatures from 1961 to 1990. Unfortunately not up-to-date, these can nevertheless be used as a guide for the average number of (ground) frost days that occurred each month as well as minimum and maximum temperatures. Bare in mind that the weather conditions from your nearest weather station might not resemble those of your garden. In our case it can differ by up to 5ºC so again, keeping good records including temperaturesmight help you.

For more accurate current readings Met Éireann also publish daily records, those combined with the averages could give you a very clear sign of the final sowing dates.

If you want to be totally sure however, soil thermometers are readily available either online or from garden centres.

Whenever you choose to sow, it’s a good idea to start gathering resources in case of unexpected frosts that can either be used at the beginning of the year to protect sowings and seedlings, or at the end to protect from autumn frosts. Start stocking up on horticultural fleece, collect newspapers or pick up old net curtains from boot sales so that you can cover precious seedlings should a cold snap occur.

In our climate Aubergines definitely need a long growing season Margaret so the earlier you can sow them the better. I started mine in mid Feb last year and the fruits just didn't grow large enough for the temperatures cooled again. Good luck with them. Let me know how they grow :~)

It is amazing how similar our gardening season is to your own, most of our tender crops go in around the first or second week of June depending upon the weather. I am a repeat offender when it comes to planting beans too early and will make a concerted effort to be more patient this year…last spring found me doing lot of green bean replanting.

Weather really can play havoc with the timing. I planted my bean seedlings out at the end of June last year (was very busy) and it was touch and go whether I'd left it too late for a good crop. As it happened we didn't get frosts till much later last year.

I'm so impressed with your winter cloches though. They're something I haven't really embraced yet here, though have used them on a few occasions at the beginning of the season so we can get crops in at the same time as folk in the valley.

[…] related questions, especially ones relating to vegetables, one of my first ports of call is Dee of Greenside Up. The question of when should you sow seeds is a question I think has been on everyone’s mind […]

[…] best chance, it’s recommended by some gardeners to sow the seeds inside in seed trays 10 weeks before last frosts, before planting out in well prepared soil. In Ireland that would be around the end of February and I should add at this point that I’ve […]

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Hi, my name is Dee Sewell, social and therapeutic horticulturalist, owner/manager of Greenside Up, community and vegetable garden tutor and author of this blog.
I began blogging back in 2009 when I started my Carlow/Kilkenny garden business and as a result the blog is now full of tips, tales, talk and tasty treats about Ireland, gardening, recipes, the environment, family life and community.
If you want to find more about how we came to live in Ireland and what we do, take a look in the About page or Contact me about how I can help you grow your own food.

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